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Kim Leadbeater MP presented to the House of Commons on 16 October 2024. It applies only to England and Wales. A separate Bill is being debated in the Scottish Parliament. The full text of the Bill was only released to the public on 11 November, ahead of a second reading in the House of Commons on 29 November 2024.

On Friday 29 November, after an emotional, very well attended debate, MPs voted in favour of the Bill (330 for, 275 against). It was a 'conscience' vote, unconstrained by party policies. This allows for further work to be done on refining the Bill in committees, with a further vote (or votes) for approval in the House of Commons, and eventually through the House of Lords. The process could take many months, and the Bill could ultimately be rejected by MPs or Lords if it is deemed inadequate. If it is delayed considerably through revision-making stages, it might even run out of Parliamentary time, which means the Bill will be completely abandoned and the entire process would need to start from scratch (with no guarantee that it would be addressed in any succeeding parliamentary session).

The issue of assisted dying was last debated in the House of Commons in 2015, with 330 votes against and 118 votes for the provision of assisted dying into UK law and practice. An in the House of Lords was introduced by Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 26 July 2024, which will be paused while the House of Commons Bill progresses, or may be dismissed completely.

A separate debate and Bill on Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill adults is progressing through the Scottish Parliament, having been introduced in March 2024. As a devolved matter, Scotland will be able to make up its own mind on the issue, although some some Scottish MPs will take the opportunity to vote on the Bill effecting England and Wales, as our system of government allows, despite it not affecting Scottish law directly.

In Wales, the situation is more complicated in that the reach of the Bill extends to Wales, yet in an indicative vote in the Senedd, Welsh Assembly Members voted strongly against implementing assisted dying.

Currently, in the UK, the administration of pain relief is strictly monitored when associated with end-of-life care. As the law in England and Wales stands, it is illegal to assist the end of a person’s life, punishable with up to 14 years in prison. There have been times where a partner or family member has been arrested and questioned when returning from Dignitas in Switzerland where private assisted dying has been conducted by a loved one.

After the House of Commons vote on 29 November, the United Reformed Church issued this response.

The Â鶹¸ßÇå last debated the issue in 2007, when the General Assembly affirmed:

1. The Â鶹¸ßÇå regards all human life as being God given, and therefore precious. It recognises that there is a time to die and that there are circumstances in which it will be wrong to continue to provide treatment designed to prolong life.
2. It also recognises that some palliative treatment for the terminally ill makes the patient more comfortable and pain free, but can also hasten death. It believes this to be acceptable, as long as the primary purpose of the treatment is pain relief and comfort of the patient.
3. The Â鶹¸ßÇå does not support legislation that would empower medical staff to intervene in ways which deliberately seek to assist a patient to die, and opposes any change in the law to permit voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide.

Read the full report on this subject from 2007 (PDF | 2mb)

Much has changed in society and within the Church in the intervening years. As part of the Scottish Parliament’s recent ‘call for views’ on its Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill, the Â鶹¸ßÇå National Synod of Scotland which indicated that members have a range of views on the matter and the synod was presenting a ‘neutral’ response.

There has been correspondence and informal discussion from Â鶹¸ßÇå members expressing a range of views in recent months since assisted dying re-entered the news cycle.

Given the deep sensitivity expressed around the issue, we have therefore encouraged two strands of working in 2024-2025 that explore how we might seek to encourage the Church to reason together, in careful and compassionate dialogue, and to afford members the opportunity to respectfully hold different opinions with integrity.

1. The Worship, Faith and Order committee has committed to further prayerful study, research and reflection. The committee is seeking to provide a framework for broad discussion as part of a residential in 2025, followed by further work.
2. We will share a range of our own resources plus those of the Methodist Church and the Church of Scotland, with whom we work closely on many public issues through the Joint Public Issues Team. We invite congregations and individuals to engage with these resources, to seek to have a broader understanding of the complex issues involved, and to be able to exercise compassion and respect towards those who hold a different view.

The Bible provides a foundational understanding of the world as we believe it should be, although it is of course open to interpretation and worthy of careful study to appreciate its original context and intent. Similarly, the current social context is also worthy of study and interpretation. There is limited time and scope in this short article, but some headlines:

• People with a disability/Disabled people are more integrated into society now than ever, although many barriers still remain to full inclusion and acceptance in many cases.
• Nursing home or at-home care is often poorly paid and understaffed/under-resourced. Palliative care is often oversubscribed and not always at high standards.
• Â鶹¸ßÇålessness is at an all-time high – rough sleepers, families on the brink of being made homeless, people unable to find permanent accommodation.
• Mental ill health is being experienced by a large proportion of the UK (e.g. 16% of England’s population for common forms of depression and mental ill health) with alarming rises among young adults since 2020.

This is a bleak outlook for many of those who question their own worth and place in society, largely due to external factors over which they have no control. Our Churches are not and cannot be blind to the issues that make life unbearable for some. We believe that abundant life is the hope of the gospel of following Christ, but in a world full of difficulty and decay, we know that the lived experience for many people is much less than that. Therefore, our call must always be not just to care for the dying, but for all those who live, in whatever state they are found.

The commentary that follows refers to the draft of the Bill published on 11 November 2024. You can view of the Bill on the UK Parliament website.

As can only be reasonably expected, the Bill sets out the legal framework for how assisted dying would be carried out in England and Wales, but offers no moral or ethical accompaniment.

(PDF | 681kb)

There are efforts to ensure that the person seeking an end to their life is not under coercion.

People seeking assisted dying, who have been given six months to live and have been resident in the UK for at least two years, must make two separate legal declarations, with two physicians not connected with their regular healthcare provision having to agree at each stage. A time of ‘reflection’ is built in to delay the process (seven days at this stage). The declarations must be witnessed by an adult who is not related (there is a long list of people who are considered to be ‘related’, including ex-partners and step-children who are considered as children). The witnesses must not gain financially from the death of the person.

If the person is physically unable to sign the declarations themselves, the declarations can be signed by proxies (there must be a different proxy for each declaration), with the same restrictions as witnesses.

A high court judge must hear from one of the physicians and agree that the person is qualified to make the decision. The judge can ask anyone to appear to give evidence. Should the high court judge reject the declaration, appeals from the person seeking the end of their life are possible at the Appeals Court. This is the highest level of appeal possible. The Bill doesn’t mention if a family member (for instance) has the right to appeal a high court decision.

After the ruling, at least 14 days must pass before action can be taken (unless the perceived end of life is imminent, when this can be accelerated to 48 hours of reflection time).

There are several instances mentioned in the text where the ‘Secretary of State’ (for Health) must do further work to ensure that the Bill, if enacted, would be implemented appropriately. [The current Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has already voiced his opposition to assisted dying, and has emphasised that palliative care should be a focus for improvement within the NHS.]

United Reformed Church

• Publication on Assisted Dying produced for General Assembly 2007 (PDF | 1.5mb)

Methodist Church

• prepared after Methodist Conference 2015

Church of Scotland

• to some of the views from people within the Church if Scotland in relation to issues around assisted dying, prepared in 2023-2024

Video and Audio Documentaries

• — True Vision TV
  • A powerful and thought-provoking feature-length documentary that explores the human cost of the current British law on assisted dying, featuring the emotional stories of five people who all want the right to die at a time of their choosing as well as why some feel this is a choice they should not have.
  • Made by Oscar, Emmy and BAFTA-winning director Jon Blair and BAFTA-winning producer Rachel Cumella, A Time to Die delves deep into assisted dying, aiming to shed fresh light on a highly controversial issue.

 

• – BBC One
  • A documentary on assisted suicide, authored by actor and disability rights activist Liz Carr.
  • Liz debates why she believes we shouldn’t legalise assisted suicide. As a long-term campaigner against that change, Liz fears disabled lives will be put at risk if the law is altered.
  • Travelling to Canada, Liz explores the repercussions of some of the most permissive assisted suicide laws in the world. Here, Liz is confronted with a law that can end the lives of not just the terminally ill but people who are disabled and those who are offered a medically assisted death as a ‘way out’ of social deprivation.
  • In a society where disabled people are often told they are ‘better off dead’ than disabled, Liz asks: ‘Should we really be giving more power to end that group of people’s lives?’

 

• - BBC Sounds
  • Giles Fraser hears about Alison Davis, who was in pain, very unwell and wanted to die. Her friend and carer Colin Harte describes how she changed her mind and went on to campaign against euthanasia, or assisted dying, and also developed a Catholic faith. The debate about assisted dying, the right to choose when and how we die if we're terminally ill, is back in the political spotlight. Life, death and attitudes to suffering are at the heart of all religions.
  • After hearing Alison's story, a panel of people of faith discuss how their beliefs shape their views on this fundamental question. With Rabbi Jonathan Romain, Canon Rosie Harper, Rev Katie Tupling and Baljit Singh.

 

• [campaigning to allow assisted dying]

 

• [campaigning again assisted dying]

Further resources to enable reflection and discussion will be added in due course.